Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement

Continuous Improvement is nothing new. In the early nineties, whole high quality administration (TQM) was all the craze. And even then, TQM was a re-visitation of methods utilized in previous a long time. Today, steady enchancment is embraced in practically each growth methodology. But whether or not from the “fifties” or the “twenties”, the message remains to be the identical: any measurable enchancment (whether or not in processes or in applied sciences) is the results of a scientific strategy. This is true for software program growth. And it’s true for steady privateness enhancements.

Privacy Is Threatened

With each wave of know-how change, there have been concurrent enhancements in figuring out what clients need – and what they are going to “spend” to be able to receive one thing. At the identical time, clients have develop into more and more pissed off with company makes an attempt to “anticipate” their “funding” habits. For instance, the deployment of GPS and placement applied sciences has allowed sellers to “attain” potential clients at any time when these clients are bodily close to the purpose of sale. In quick, if you bought to the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, you’ll in all probability get provides for shops which can be in your neighborhood.

While some individuals discover this exhilarating, many individuals discover it irritating. And some see these sorts of capabilities as demonstrative of a darker functionality: the power for these with functionality to observe and handle the bigger populace. For some, the “sinister” individuals spying on them are companies. For many, the “malevolent” forces that they worry are shadowy “hackers” that may steal (or have already stolen) each property and id. And for a really small group of individuals, the powers that they worry most are governments and / or related authorities. For everybody, the aptitude to observe and affect habits is actual.

Surveillance And Exploitation Are Not New

Governments have tried to “watch” residents – whether or not to guard them from threats or to “handle” them into predetermined behaviors. You can take a look at each society and see that there have at all times been areas of our life that we want to maintain non-public. And balanced in opposition to these needs are the needs of different individuals. So with each era (and now with each know-how change), the dance of “private privateness” and “group administration” is renewed.

As the know-how used for surveillance has matured, the instruments for guaranteeing privateness have additionally modified. And the strategies for guaranteeing privateness right this moment have drastically modified from the instruments used even a couple of years in the past. And if historical past is an efficient predictor of the long run, then we will and will count on that we should frequently sharpen our instruments for privateness – whilst our “adversaries” are sharpening their instruments of surveillance. Bottom Line: The technique of sustaining our privateness is topic to steady risk and have to be dealt with in a mannequin akin to steady course of enchancment. So let’s begin accepting the necessity for steady privateness enchancment.

Tackling Your Adversaries – One At A Time

If you take a look at the state of surveillance, you in all probability are fatigued by the fixed combat to keep up your privateness. I do know that I’m perpetually fatigued. Every time that you simply harden your defenses, new threats emerge. And the method of figuring out your threats and your dangers appears to be endless. And in reality, it truly is endless. So how do you sort out such an issue? I do it systematically.

As an instructional (and lifelong) debater – in addition to a educated enterprise architect – I frequently assess the present state. That evaluation includes the next actions:

  • Specify what the scenario is at the moment second.
  • Assess the upsides and disadvantages of the present scenario.
  • Identify these issues which can be the basis causes of the present scenario.
  • Outline what sort of future state (or goal state) can be preferable.
  • Determine the “gaps” between the present and future states.
  • Develop a plan to deal with these gaps (and their underlying issues).

And there are numerous methods to construct plans. Some of us love the entire substitute mannequin. And whereas that is possible for some tasks, it’s hardly ever sensible for our private lives. [Note: There are times when threats do require a total transformation. But they are the exception and not the general rule.] Since privateness is such a elementary a part of our lives, we should acknowledge that modifications to our privateness posture have to be made incrementally – and constantly. Consequently, we should perceive the massive image and then assault in small and steady methods. In army phrases, you need to keep away from multi-front campaigns in any respect price. Both Napoleon and Hitler eschewed this suggestion. And they misplaced accordingly.

My Current State – And My Problems

I launched into my journey in direction of intentional privateness a couple of years in the past. I’ve given dozens of talks about privateness and safety to each IT groups and to private acquaintances. And I’ve made it a degree to chronicle my private travails alongside my path to a extra non-public life. But to be able to enhance, I wanted to evaluate what I’ve performed – and what stays to be performed.

So right here goes…

Over the previous two years, I’ve switched my major electronic mail supplier. I’ve modified my search suppliers and my browsers – a number of occasions. And I’ve even switched from Windows to Linux. But my transformation has at all times been one step away from its completion.

The Next (to Last) Step: De-googling

This 12 months, I made a decision to deal with the elephant within the room: I made a decision to take a radical step in direction of eradicating Google from my life. I’ve been utilizing Google merchandise for nearly half of my skilled life. Even although I knew that Google was one of many largest risk actors my ecosystem, I nonetheless held on to to a Google lifeline. Specifically, I used to be nonetheless utilizing a telephone primarily based upon Google’s ecosystem. [Note: I did not say Android. Because Android is a Linux-oriented phone that Google bought and transformed into a vehicle for data collection and advertising delivery.]

I had retained my Google foothold as a result of I had some key investments that I used to be unwilling to relinquish. The first of those was a Google Voice quantity that had been on the coronary heart of my private life (and my enterprise id). That quantity was coupled with my private Google electronic mail id. It was the anchor of lots of of accounts. And it was within the deal with books of lots of of mates, kin, colleagues, clients, and potential clients.

Nevertheless, some great benefits of preserving a private Google account have been lastly outweighed by my agency realization that Google wasn’t giving me an account without spending a dime; Google was “giving” me an account to optimize their promoting supply. Or acknowledged in another way, I used to be prepared to promote unfettered entry to myself so long as I didn’t thoughts relinquishing any proper to privateness. And after over fifteen years with the identical account, I used to be lastly able to reclaim my proper to privateness.

Too Many Options Can Lead To Inaction

I had already taken some steps to remove a lot of the Google stranglehold on my id. But they nonetheless had the lynch pins:

  • I nonetheless had a private Google account, and
  • Google had unfettered entry to my cell computing platform.

So I needed to break the connection from myself to my telephone. I fastidiously thought of the choices that have been accessible to me.

  1. I might change to an iPhone. Without getting too detailed, I rejected this feature because it was merely buying and selling one grasp for one more one. Yes, I had cause to consider that Apple was “much less” invasive than Google. But Google was “much less” invasive at one time limit. So I rejected buying and selling one for one more.
  2. I might set up a special model of Android on my present telephone. While I’ve performed this previously, I used to be not ready to do that with my present telephone. I had purchased a Samsung Galaxy S8+ three years in the past. And once I left Sprint for the second time (as a result of impending merger), I saved the telephone. But this telephone was primarily based upon the Qualcomm SnapDragon 855. Consequently, the telephone had a locked bootloader. And Qualcomm has by no means relented and unlocked the bootloader. So I can not flash a brand new ROM (like LineageOS) on this telephone.
  3. I might set up a special model of Android on a brand new telephone. This choice had some benefit – at the price of buying new telephone {hardware}. I might definitely purchase a brand new (or used) telephone that will help GraphenOS or LineageOS. But throughout these austere occasions (when consulting contracts are sparse), I can’t relinquish any coin of the realm to purchase again my privateness. And shopping for a Pixel sounds extra like paying a ransomware demand that purchasing one thing of worth.
  4. I might take what I had and stay with it. Yes, that is the default choice. And whereas I diddled with comparisons, this WAS what I did for over a 12 months. After all, it fell into the adage that if it isn’t damaged, then why repair it? But such defaults by no means final – a minimum of, not for me.
  5. I might use the present telephone and take the incremental subsequent step in utilizing a telephone with a locked bootloader: I might remove the Google bits by eliminating the Google account and by uninstalling (and/or disabling) Google, Samsung, and T-Mobile apps utilizing the Android Debug Bridge (a.okay.a., adb).

I had beforehand determined to de-google my telephone earlier than my birthday (in July). So as soon as Independence Day got here and went, I bought critical about de-googling my telephone.

The Road Less Taken

Of the entire choices accessible to me, I landed on the one which price the least quantity of my cash however required probably the most funding of my private time. So I researched many alternative lists of Google apps (and frameworks) on the Samsung Galaxy S8+. I first disabled the apps that I had recognized. Then I used a device accessible on the Google Play Store referred to as Package Disabler Pro. I’ve used this earlier than. So I used it once more to determine these apps that I might readily disable. By doing this, I might decide the total influence of deleted a few of these packages – earlier than I really deleted them. Once I had developed checklist and had validated that the telephone would nonetheless function, I made my first try.

And as anticipated, I bumped into a couple of issues. Some of them have been sudden. But most of them have been completely anticipated. Specifically, Google embeds some superb know-how within the Google Play Services (gms) and Google Services Framework (gsf). And if you disable / delete these instruments, a number of apps simply received’t work fully. This is very true with notifications.

I additionally came upon that there have been some key multimedia messaging companies (MMS) capabilities that I used to be utilizing with out realizing it. So once I deleted these MMS instruments, I had bother with a few of my routine multi-recipient messages. I solved this by merely re-installing these items of software program. [Note: If that had not worked, then I was ready to re-flash to a baseline T-Mobile ROM. So I had multiple fallback plans. Fortunately, the re-installation solved the biggest problem.]

Bottom Line

After planning for the eventual elimination of my Google dependence, I lastly took the required final step in direction of a extra non-public life; I efficiently de-googled my telephone – and my private life. Do I nonetheless have some interplay with Google? Of course I do. But these interactions are far much less substantial, way more manageable, and way more non-public. At the identical time, I’ve eradicated a lot of Samsung and T-Mobile monitoring instruments. So my steady privateness enchancment course of (i.e., my intentional privateness enhancements) has resulted in a extra fascinating collaboration between myself and my know-how companions.

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